I am interested to hear any opinions about the proposed Royal Mail floatation. Will it remain a croc and sink or will it open at a premium and fly?

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail's pre-tax profit fell by 30% to £77 million in the six months to 24 September, led by a drop in profits in the UK Parcels, International and Letters (UKPIL) division.

The UKPIL arm's revenue was flat at £3.6 million, but operating profit declined from £247 million to £233 million with letter volumes dropping by 3%.

This follows a 2% revenue decline in the UKPIL arm in 2016-17.

The European parcels unit, General Logistics Systems (GLS) saw a 9% increase in revenue, with operating profits growing from £73 million to £90 million, driven by a strong performance in Italy. Volumes grew by 9%.

Overall, the group's revenue edged up by 2% on an underlying basis.

Moya Greene, chief executive officer, said: "Our performance for the full year, as always, will be dependent on the important Christmas period. We are opening six temporary parcel sort centres and recruiting over 20,000 staff. We are also extending opening hours at many of our enquiry offices to help retailers and consumers.

"As previously announced, we are now in external mediation with the CWU. Our priority is to reach agreement with the CWU to help underpin the sustainability of the business."

Jefferies International today reaffirms its underperform investment rating on Royal Mail Plc (LON:RMG) and raised its price target to 330p (from 320p).

Morgan Stanley today reaffirms its underweight investment rating on Royal Mail Plc (LON:RMG) and raised its price target to 410p (from 390p)

StockMarketWire.com
Royal Mail posted a 1% rise in underlying first-quarter revenue after growing parcel revenue was again offset by weak letter volumes.

The UK parcels and letters business saw sales fall 1%, with parcel revenue up 6% and total letter revenue down 7%.

International logistics business GLS continued to perform strongly, with revenue up 11% on the back of 10% growth in volumes.

'Overall, our trading performance in the first three months of the financial year was in line with our expectations,' Royal Mail said.

It maintained its outlook for addressed letter volume declines of between 4-6% per annum, excluding political parties' election mailings.

Due to the potential impact of new data protection regulations and if business uncertainty persisted, Royal Mail said it still expected to be at the higher end of the range of decline for 2018-19 -- and even may fall outside the range in a period.

In GLS, Royal Mail said it continued to expect a good performance in 2018-19, although margins may be impacted by continuing labour market pressures in many of its markets.

'Our outlook and other guidance are also unchanged from that set out in our financial report for the full year ended 25 March 2018,' the company said.

Liberum Capital Sell 363.75 415.00 250.00 Reiterates

Citigroup Neutral 363.75 485.00 - Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Sell 363.75 428.00 300.00 Reiterates

(Reuters) - Shares of Royal Mail (RMG.L) deepened its slump on Tuesday, hitting a record low, a day after the 500-year-old postal service warned annual profit would be far lower than expected, hurt by eroding logistics business margins and weaker letter volumes.

“We have been bearish on the outlook for productivity improvements, but yesterday’s profit warning was shocking in its scale and timing,” Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo said.

The brokerage slashed its target price on the stock to 250 pence from 415 pence and cut full-year earnings estimate by 30 percent and subsequent years by 38 percent.

Credit Suisse slashed its price target on the stock by 111 pence to 450 pence, while Deutsche Bank cut its target to 300 pence from 428 pence on Tuesday.

Although Royal Mail maintained its dividend, analysts warned that the policy did not look sustainable in the longer term."

similar slump this time last year below £4, they hit £6 six months later plus a juicy div.

Trading stock

Buy Buy Buy!!!

Bonfield.

Royal Mail reported revenue up 1% but a 25% decline in operating profits for the first half of the year. Chief executive Rico Back said a range of actions had been put in place to improve performance and confirmed the board's commitment to cut £100m of costs and generate adjusted group operating profit before transformation costs of £500-550m for the financial year.

Royal Mail tightened up its full-year profit guidance after what it said was a busy Christmas period. The letters and parcels group now expects to deliver adjusted group operating profit before transformation costs of £500-530m, from the £500-550m previously indicated.